Stages in Forgiveness

11 September 2005: 24th Sunday of the YearMatthew 18, 21-35: Part II on Forgiveness Toward the end of her almost epochal book, The Human Condition (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1958), the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt turns finally to two neglected powers of the human spirit: forgiveness to heal our past, and promises to secure our

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Joy to the Latecomers

18 September 2005: 25th Sunday of the YearMatthew 20:1-16: The Workers in the VineyardA few things have to be said about the Gospel today. 1) Matthew only has this parable; 2) The vineyard owner normally goes to the market place only once, to hire the day’s laborers; on average, he hires all the manpower he

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On Violence

2 October 2005: 27th Sunday of the YearMatthew 21:33-43 On ViolenceToday’s gospel can be interpreted on many levels, but today I want to focus on the violence it contains. This is, as you sadly know, a timely topic. Violence forms the subtext of our daily lives. Nations, peoples, individuals of all ages–even kids–are routinely hurting,

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Forever at a Wedding Feast

9 October 2005: 28th Sunday of the YearMatthew 22, 1-14 The Wedding Banquet In Palestine, when a man plans a party, the date was announced long beforehand and invitations were sent and accepted. But the hour of the party was never announced. When everything was prepared, the servants were sent to the invited guests. Thus,

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The Two Great Commandments

23 October 2005: 30th Sunday of the YearMatthew 22, 34-40 They said that Christianity is a simple religion. Today, we hear about how simple our faith is. Jesus has laid down for us only two commandments, a definite summary of all the commandments in the Old Testament, which we can memorize and live our lives

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The Meaning of Visiting the Grave

Matthew 23, 1-12. 31st Sunday of the YearHomily for All Souls Day and All Saints DayThe Gospel today speaks about practicing what we preach. But there are things which we practice but do not know why we preach it. For example, we come to Sunday mass but we totally do not understand what the mass

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